Tracking Terrain

     Tenet awoke when the sunrise sun’s rays pierced the opening of the burrow and flooded his eyes with blinding light. The massive kirunhound shifted his aching body to check on his egg, and found it to still be intact and next to him. Relieved, he exited the burrow and glanced around to check there was no one nearby. He only saw the grass swaying softly in the morning breeze and a few birds in the distance; there was not a predator in sight. Tenet stretched for a few minutes, cracking every stiff joint in his body from the awful sleeping position while contemplating his next move.

     The next thing to do on the list he was given was to find an element to align the egg with. He could think of a few; fire, water, earth, wind… but which one would be fitting he did not know. Fire would be foolish, since the brush of the Veldt was so dry; the breeze would make the firepit go out of control, and within seconds the whole area would be ablaze. Tenet immediately ruled out fire. Water was quite scarce, and dipping his egg into a pool did not sound like the best idea. While he’d be able to find a source of high wind with ease, an open area that would have such a thing would leave him- and his egg- exposed. This left one option: earth. The ground was always there, after all, which meant finding earth would be easy enough. There was one problem with this conclusion, however.

     How do you align an egg’s element with the ground?

     Tenet sighed. He had to figure it out somehow. Fire, water, and wind seemed obvious enough (wait, does aligning an egg with fire mean cooking it…?) but earth was a little more out there. Was he meant to sprinkle dirt on it, bury it completely, or somewhere inbetween? Would dirt suffice, or did he have to go on some wild adventure to find a specific type of rock? He knew that to hatch his egg, he would need to find a gem, but figured this was different than that (and that giving the egg a gem may even skip the step entirely, ruining the preparation process). That was certainly a risk he did not want to take, so immediately any type of gem was ruled out of possible ways to align his egg with the earth. He figured just sprinkling dirt on it would not suffice, and that burying it would be dangerous, so it was settled: somewhere in between.

     Retreating into his makeshift burrow, Tenet retrieved his egg and placed it into his satchel. He exited the burrow again, picked a direction, and started walking. He decided he should find some loose gravel or something similar, earthly but scarcer than straight dirt, light enough to not harm the egg’s outer shell. The Veldt’s piercing sun shone down on him as he walked, making him ever more thankful for his light coat. He knew a few hounds with coats so thick it made the heat nearly impossible to tolerate; he hoped whatever creature hatched from his egg would not suffer the same fate.

     Eventually, Tenet stumbled across a small pond. He spent a moment of respite at its shore, lapping up the comparatively cold liquid while he had the chance. While he had already decided he wouldn’t dunk the egg, that did not mean he couldn’t take a short rest. Besides, gravel and clay were most common around bodies of water like this, as far as Tenet knew, which meant this may be the perfect spot to align his egg’s element after all. He dunked his head in and then shook himself vigorously to remove the water from his pelt, then looked to the bank of the pond. Sure enough, he saw some pebbles that would make for a fine gravel bed. He scooped some up in his large paws and dispersed the stones across the ground to dry out in the sun, then scooped some clay, then mud, and did the same. While he waited for the sun to dry up his bounty, Tenet set the satchel to the side and spent a few minutes enjoying the cold water.

     About ten minutes later, the harsh sunlight had done its part. Tenet exited the water and shook himself to get most of it off, making sure to remove his paws of as much moisture as possible. He delicately scooped up the dried dirt, pebbles, and clay and clumped them together into a ‘nest’ of sorts that would keep the egg still within a mold. Once it was complete, Tenet set his egg inside of it. He silently hoped the shell wouldn’t stain.

     Tenet felt that he had completed the task but, like some of the other steps, was not sure how long he was supposed to keep his egg encased in the element of his choosing. So, he scooped up his egg and its little dirt-gravel-clay nest and placed the whole thing into the satchel. Then, he heaved it on to his shoulder and set off to fulfill the sixth and final step: to find the perfect gem.